Rainy Days
by Autumn Dusk
Summary: Slight Anzu and Atemu [Some OOC] Rainy days are so pretty, don't you think? Anzu and Atemu are sitting in Yuugi's house during a rainstorm when suddenly a strange conversation occurs and Atemu discovers things shouldn't always be taken at face value.


_Author's Note: My first ever Atemu/Anzu fanfiction story. I'm not quite sure I got Anzu into character but you'll forgive little old me, right? LOL. Uh-huh...yeah...whatever. Anyways, this is just an experiment. I'll **might **write a sister fic for this story depending on the response I get. _

_**Notes: **This is a one shot story. Has some reference to Battle City but the event that is mentioned has been made up for the sake of this story. Also has some OOCness on Anzu's part. Italicized words in the story will be Atemu's thoughts. _

_**Disclaimer: **Me do not own Yu-Gi-Oh because if me did own Yu-Gi-Oh, me would not be pathetically writing non-profit fanfiction stories on it. _

_**Setting: **Anzu and Atemu are alone in Yuugi's house while it rains. Thus begins a semi-strange conversation about rain and Atemu soon discovers that things aren't always what they seem on the outside. _

_**RAINY DAYS**_

"Rainy days are so pretty, don't you think?"

She was close to him, he noticed. So close that their elbows brushed against each other lightly without any effort at all. Not so close that he could see the expression on her face which was half turned away so he couldn't see her face well. It was intentional. He assumed it was merely a coincidence.

Both were staring out a rain-speckled window, she with musing nostalgia and he with detached indifference. She was the one who had started looking out the window. He had joined her out of mere civility though finding little interest in doing such things. However, she after all was his hikari's best friend. If he was not doing it for himself, he might as well do it for his hikari. Besides, what was the harm of it?

She was not expecting an answer but he, being the courteous man that he was, assumed that she **had** been expecting one. And so he answered, albeit a bit reluctantly.

"I...haven't really noticed, I suppose."

He closed his eyes. It was mentally tiring to watch the rain, to see the same thing without change. He had always considered rain to be one of the most dreariest and miserable out of all things. He found no interest in rain. He wondered why Anzu did.

A sigh came from her. He opened his eyes momentarily in some surprise.

"Yes, well...no one really **does **notice."

He didn't know what she meant by that nor did he ask. She has shifted so that their elbows were no longer touching and she and he were so much more farther apart. He didn't mourn the absence; merely turning the other way so that his eyes bore into the side of her. He could see just a glimpse of her face before she twisted it down, throwing it all into shadow and making it impossible to see. He realized now that it all was intentional.

"...before I didn't like the rain, you know."

She acted as if she were talking to herself. Perhaps she was...he mused. She wasn't.

"It always had seemed...so sad to me. When I was little, I used to think that the sky was crying every time it rained. And I...I never really did like sad things. I always liked things to be happy. Perfect."

Her sentence was punctured, he realized, by the steady drumming of the rain outside. She sounded so distorted and strange. She didn't notice.

"But a lot of things have changed since then...when Yuugi put together the millennium puzzle, a lot of things changed..."

He threw her a startled look but said nothing. It was true...he was perfectly aware of it. Yuugi had mentioned it to him several times. But he had never heard Anzu say anything about it. So he coughs just a bit to try to bring her back to reality and away from dangerous subjects. Deliberately. Purposely. He doesn't know whether he does it for him or for her because he knows she needs it but he needs it too. Things become so complicated when you talk about things that no one else ever talks about.

It seems as if she suddenly remembers where she is and who she's with. The dreamy quality of her voice stops and she clears her throat, looking embarrassedly at him and apologizes. "Oh...sorry, Atemu. Sometimes I just go off like that..."

"It's alright." He was eager to change the subject to something safer so he ventures, "You were saying...?"

She smiles, flushing somewhat and continues, not answering. She would not say that she knew what his motive was but she did. It was safer to keep from treading risky water even though things might transpire if they did. He thought of the dangers and worried about them, she knew of them but did not care much.

"I didn't like change either. Change meant things were different. Friends could become enemies or strangers, love became hate...things just would never stay the same. But I didn't say anything to Yuugi, Honda, Katsuya or Ryou about my silly worries and troubles. It was **my** stupid hope that things would stay the same even though I knew that it never would. Everyone welcomed the changes, the challenges that came with it, the things that were different. I didn't."

She's forgetting he's there again. He can see it by the way she stares out the window. She continues on rather blithely as if she had never been interrupted and the dreamy quality returns, only not as sad as before. He doesn't know whether that was good or bad.

"But Yuugi was still the same as he always was. Kind, caring, loving...he was my anchor...my hold on the past...I had always depended on him to be there. Sturdy, reliable...always there...always...Yuugi. Then we entered Battle City."

She was smiling, he saw. It was brittle...so fragile as if the slightest thing might make it break. She was trying to stay strong but she was failing miserably. He could see right through her.

"One day...when we all were at Battle City...when you and Jounouchi were dueling and Honda was in the hospital with Shizuka...it rained. I was about to head for some shelter to keep from getting wet but then I noticed...just how peaceful the rain was. It was steady. Predictable. So sad like I had always thought...but peaceful at the same time. I guess that's when I realized things weren't the same. That it never would **be **the same." Her voice took on a subdued tone, "That's when I understood..."

She turned so that her face was tilted fully towards him. He saw. But he didn't want to.

"It's so quiet, isn't it, Atemu?" she murmured to him. She had moved closer so that he could see the tears dangling on the very tips of her eyelashes; about to fall but trying so very, very hard to stay on and keep from falling.

_You hide things so well don't you, Anzu? No one ever noticed your sadness or loneliness...not even me. Especially me..._

He pulled himself away from impending guilt and bad memories and back to the world where he was currently leaning against the window besides Anzu. Then he looked at the rain dotting the window. Simple yet complex water droplets which glinted confusedly at him. One such droplet slid carefully down the glass and dripped off calmly at the very end. It was a simple action but somehow it moved him.

_**END**_

_Author's Note: Bad, bad, **bad **story...I know but if you could just find it in your overly kind, compassionate hearts...review? Shallow, I know but it makes my day and inspires me to write more stories. :) Can't argue with that, right? _


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